Spacewar back in MIT always had 2 different styles of ships to tell them apart. One is the Triangle (now more famous for Asteroids) and the other is a classic Rocketship design. Its been awhile, but the book Hackers (written in the early 1980s I think when that term did not mean exactly what it does today) details the creation of the game.

Just got a Sean Kelly multicart for Vectrex last week. Will have to give this one a try. Never tried any version of Space Wars before, and didn't even realize the Vectrex had one. Thanks for the review.

This and Rip Off are my two favorite 2P games on the Vectrex (which is an underrated 2P console, no doubt in part because the controllers are so rare). It's tons of fun, moves along at a nice clip, and always allows for a late-game comeback.

This site never fails to entertain me. I have been into games for about 40 years.. I remember when they first game out. I was in the Carnival. I had read bits of Ray Bradbury's dark carnival and was fascinated by them. Oh course it was nothing like it but imagination did the rest. There was this huge hall In Glasgow called the Kelvin Hall as it was on the banks of the river Kelvin. All the fun of the fair was in there. Unfortunately Burgess Meredith was not in there with his famous torture garden.. and there were no flesh eating plants. Just candy floss and toffee apples and people throwing up on cheap cider (whilst on the fun rides..). So I got to play Star ship and my mind was blown. Later playing star ship on the vcs I thought yeah I remember this... not as much fun but the genesis of the idea was still there.

Had I seen this I would similarly have just been blown away. I have played the vcs one but it is a bit limp. Though I always remember the first time I played Gravitar. Wow what an experience. I think this is similar to that. I was always in love with the vertrex. I never did get one.

Yes. There are videos of gameplay on Youtube fortunately to see. Obviously its one player, the gameplay is different (twin enemy saucers) and I believe its discrete logic since there is not microprocessor. I would love to see one in real life. A couple dozen do survive apparently. However they made it, its impressive.

Yes. There are videos of gameplay on Youtube fortunately to see. Obviously its one player, the gameplay is different (twin enemy saucers) and I believe its discrete logic since there is not a microprocessor. I would love to see one in real life. A couple dozen do survive apparently. However they made it, its impressive.

Not only did it not use a CPU, it also didn't use graphics ROMs. Check out this PCB picture from computerspacefan.com, where you can see the player's ship on the board, made up of diodes: